Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1887-09-08
TWICE MARRIED,

SASoSo suOTt tune ago, connected
with which there is story as strange
as any ever conceived in the brain of
professional story-teller. 1t is a
story which requires not the art of the
story-teller to make it inter ssting; the
bare facts are enough. The parties to
the contract were married over seven
years ago, were never divorced, and
yet procured license to get married
again. To begin at the beginning:
In the spring of 1878 Wilhelm Her.
mann emigrated from his native home
In Wurtenterg, Germany, intending
to settle with some relatives in small
town in the State OF Louisiana. When
he got as far as New Orleans he de-
cided to stop there some time, and
about two months after his arrival he
was married to Amelia Rettich, the
daughter of an old German resident
of that city. Three days after his
marriage he was enticed by chance
acquaintance into one Of the low beer
saloons on the levee at New Orleans,
was drugged, robbed and carried
aboard German trading vessel bound
for Newcastle, England. 1t was eight
months later before the vessel reached
that port. Immediately on gaining
his liberty Hermann sought the Ger
man consul at Newcastle and narrated
the story of his wrongs. He begged
the consul to assist him = -aturn to
VINE anu uVInO new OIIeauS
without delay; but the consul refused,
saying that as Hermann had no natu-
ralization parers or anything in the
wey of legal claim on the United
States, he was still a German citizen.
Then the consul sent for the captain
Of the vessel and compelled him to
deliver Hermann to the German au-
thorities. On his arrival at Berlin he
was pressed into the army, and bound
over to four-years' term of military
service. He underwent the drudgery
and severe discipline to which unwil-
ling recruits are subjected in the Ger
man army for a space of nearly three
years, when seeing chance to escape
from the country, he deserted. All
this time he had oeen constantly look
ing forward with an all abiding faith,
and love, and hope to a reunion
with his bride. He reached New
Orleans exactly four years after his
first arrival in that city. He then
learned that his wife, thinking him
dead, had married again and left the
city, no one knew whittier. He started
out to search for her. For nearly a
year he wandered over the greater
part OF the Southern States, following
many clews which turned out to be
false, until at last he received letter
from herself. She told him she had
given him up for lost until she chanced
to see his advertisement for her on &
stray page of a New Orleans news
paper; that she had married William
Chapman that her second husband
had been rather unfortunate in busi
ness, and had changed his place o
residence several times hoping for bet
ter luck; and that they had nov
settled down in a small frontier towr
in Western Kansas. She proposed t
leave Chapman aud go with him, he
own true husband, if he came for her
He Immediately started for Tabuta
Kansas, where his wife resided, ar
riving there FIVE days later. The da,
following his arrival, William Chap
man, the second husband, was foun,
lying dead on his own doorstep wit
bullet through his brain. Two day
later Hermann was lodged in tn
county Jail on a charge Of willfu
murder.
The morning following the arres
the prisoner was taken before tn
local Justice for examination. 4
crowd of rough, bearded frontiersmer
thronged the little room where III
proceedings were held. Justice wa
usually swift and stern in that di:
trict; in serious crimes Judge Lyme
reigned supreme. In this case, so "a